Requiring mining/drilling companies to contribute anything to clean-up and response R&D would, apparently, be a huge step forward by itself.
I agree BP shouldn't themselves be obligated to directly support this kind of testing right now. But if they had been contributing to research groups along the way, wouldn't we expect those groups would:
1. very much like to try their latest on a real problem 'in the wild'
2. be given latitude by to do exactly that by BP ?
Granted, no-one should/would rely on technology in testing to do the cleanup, but it appears the alternative to letting researchers have-at deep-sea slicks is to do nothing. So why not let researchers have at it?
And wouldn't the net result of all that be pretty much exactly what was advocated, just with a few layers of indirection?
I agree BP shouldn't themselves be obligated to directly support this kind of testing right now. But if they had been contributing to research groups along the way, wouldn't we expect those groups would: 1. very much like to try their latest on a real problem 'in the wild' 2. be given latitude by to do exactly that by BP ?
Granted, no-one should/would rely on technology in testing to do the cleanup, but it appears the alternative to letting researchers have-at deep-sea slicks is to do nothing. So why not let researchers have at it?
And wouldn't the net result of all that be pretty much exactly what was advocated, just with a few layers of indirection?